Shitty Things Happen to Good People...

We all know this to be true, right? A fact of life I suppose but shitty nonetheless.

This week is the bearer of sad news for two couples, members of our online surrogacy forum and reminds us how touch and go this journey is for all of us. One couple almost out of their first trimester got the sad news that their little one slipped away the other night. Not destined to be a part of their lives.

The second couple were 15 weeks from having their baby and he came into our world early - 15 weeks is not too early I thought but he did not make it. I'm shocked and devastated by this news too.

This has been on my mind ever since I found out. I am trying to stay positive and keep telling myself that we'll be different and have no issues but the truth is...we might. We must stay positive though right?

I have spent the best part of today online consulting Dr Google in his infinite wisdom. I've had a doozy today let me tell you & my head is spinning!
Everything from the quality of eggs from our planned ED given her age to transfering 2/3 day old embies vs paying extra til they reach the blast stage.......

My down time seems to come when I'm asleep and can't think of every possible

what if scenario.

Because we can't control what is going to happen to Darren and I in our endeavour to bring Noddy into our world, a guardian angel to look out for all of us.



I pray that God brings him/her to us.

99 Days & Counting!

We are officially into double digits until we'll be in India for our IVF cycle.

We have received our draft legal contract last night and will complete this over the next couple of days and send this onto the doctors at SI. The coming weeks will be spent preparing for the week in Mumbai and everything that has to be done leading up to that point in our surrogacy journey.

There is loads and loads of paperwork, documents and tests that need to be done and we don't want to miss anything.

The past couple of days my excitement has been tinged with nervousness. What if something happens that stops us travelling in July, what if our SM doesn't like us and decides she doesn't want to proceed, what if our ED produces no viable eggs and what if the recent paper by the SCAG ends up stopping same sex couples from undertaking commercial surrogacy in India?

I have to not worry about all the possible what could be’s and focus on what I know will happen, what I can control and all that is positive. It is the only thing sure to keep both Darren and I sane over months ahead.

Our Surrogate & Dr S

Back home from Canada and what an amazing time I had.

My only hesitation on these trips for work is that the group will be fun, get along & not be bitchy. Three ticks for APT & Canada, it was great. I made some great new friends and managed to buy those elusive Radko ornaments. You will see I've attached a photo of yours truly atop Blackcomb Mountain in Whistler, awesome!



A small update on the surrogacy front for Darren and I; we have our surrogate mother!

We were given access to the SI database of SMs and we made our selection on Monday night. We emailed SI with our first and second choice and the next day....voila....confirmed choice number one! The amazing woman who will carry our child for us.

What an amazing gift to give to a total stranger.

We are both over the moon and very excited. Not that we weren't before but it is slowly starting to creep closer and closer. I'm counting down the days to 30 July when we depart Sydney for India. Other good news received this week is that Dr Sudhir has returned to SI. I was so, so happy to hear this and read the email from Dr Yash.

The exceptional customer service and communication from Dr S is one of the many reasons we chose to undertake our Indian surrogacy journey with SI.

We have contact

with Dr Yash.

All is well and good again. Dr Yash has made contact with us and reassured us our IVF and treatment planned for July is good to go.

I in particular was a little stressed out... a little Hah! When we woke up Saturday morning after hearing from other IPs of a change to staff at SI in Mumbai and that many people had been emailed and we weren't I was stressed to the max.

But all is well now and we are both completely confident with our choice of clinic and I know that Dr Yash and her team are amazing and I can't wait to meet them in July.

On a lighter note, we went to a friend's 30th birthday on Saturday night and there was a couple there who had just had their third child on the previous Thursday. Their little girl was so adorable and cute we had to get a pic which I've attached.



Doesn't she just have the darkest head of hair......Just like our 'Noddy' will!

That Email

which Darren and I did not received from Dr Yash at SI has me worried.

I heard from another Aussie couple undertaking surrogacy with SI this morning that Dr S is no longer working with Dr Yash or associated with SI. An email was sent to a number of IPs including many Aussie couples but we were not included.

I had sent Dr S a message on skype last night to follow up on our legal documentation and program payment info and....no reply. When I woke up this morning and heard of the email and Dr S's subsequent departure I was worried and still am. I don't know why we were not included in the update from Dr Yash.

I have emailed her more than five hours ago and fair enough it is only now 8.30am in Mumbai so I shouldn't worry too much. This is one of 'those moments' I've heard about from other couples undertaking the surrogacy journey. One of those lows.

I'm really only worried because we've been corresponding all along with Dr S and he has confirmed our payments of more than 400000INR to date and I need reassurance that all is OK and we can still proceed as planned on 31 July.

I've been out this morning with my mum and had my hair cut so that was a thankful distraction for a few hours. Now I'm home listening to a relaxation CD thinking positively waiting for an email from Dr Yash.

Please dear God let everything be OK for us. I hate being so far away from India and without control.

Everything will be OK, it has to be.

Off to Canada!

Johnny is off to Canada! Not for surrogacy but to enjoy one of the perks of working in the travel industry. I'm going on a week long famil or educational with APT to Canada. A place I have yet to visit so I'm chuffed!

Vancouver, Whistler and Vancouver Island will be places visited for my week long sojourn. The only down side to these trips is that I can't take Darren. I've been lucky in my recent job to be on many trips to great places, much more in the three years here at Jetset than I ever had with eight years at American Express. I am so lucky to have such a great boss and work with an awesome group of girls.

I love the cold weather and my recent visits to online weather guides have the general temperature between -8 to 11 degrees celcius, depending on the location. YAY! I haven't been in such a cold, cold climate since I lived in Nagano in Japan more than ten years ago now.

The bonus with this particular trip is that I have loads of free time and I will have a chance to find a Christopher Radko Christmas ornament. We love these hand blown glass ornaments and every chance to visit North America means at least one of these beauties is purchased for our Christmas tree. I've attached a photo of our tree from a recent Christmas; I can't remember the year though.




Dazz and I are both Christmas mad and love everything about the holiday season. I was at home alone last night waiting for my love to come home from work and was dreaming about Christmas morning with our little 'Noddie' this has become the name for our unborn child and when ever we talk about our family, Noddie is now a part of our conversations.

I've booked & paid for our airfares to Mumbai with Qantas and managed to find a great deal that we’re happy with. I am going to book the Ramee Guestline Khar Hotel through a contact given to me by Dr S - his deals were even better than anything I could confirm as a travel agent and he was very professional and helpful.

I have an old friend from my days at Amex living in Mumbai with her husband and we're excited to be seeing her again - in fact she was born in Canada which fits in with this post perfectly. I’ve prepared my list of things to do and see while there and we're both counting down the days until 30 July. We're still waiting for Darren's leave to be approved from his head office but booked his ticket anyway, fingers crossed!

I am an adventurous traveller any day of the week but I don't think I'll be prepared for the sensory overload that is India. This will be Darren's first overseas trip to a non English speaking country. Of course we're looking forward to meeting Dr S and Yash.

The latest from SI and Dr S is that we should have our legal documentation and complete payment costing if not today in the next few days, the docs have been busy and I know what that's like! Our chosen ED is currently cycling for another IP and her EPU is in April, we have our fingers crossed that all goes well and she does not overstimulate. We should know soon enough.